“Your only limit is your imagination” – Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty is a wise being. The only thing standing in between a lot of our dreams is time and effort. One has to dream big to get something big done; but one has to dream it first! “Nothing happens unless first a dream.” – Carl Sandburg (3 times Pulitzer Prize winner)
“It’s difficult to follow your dream. It’s a tragedy not to.” – Ralph Marston
These quotes are somewhat similar to what I’ve been reading this week. I’ve been reading books about becoming a full time artist. I’ve had more time since I just cut off the last off my social media for the time being. I realized I had a [socially acceptable] problem when I went to pull up a YouTube short and I had to go through hundreds of videos to eventually not find it.
The recent cutting out of my phone has led to more time and more ideas. I ended up juggling so many new painting ideas I started a notebook page for them. This was while one of the cats was on my lap and we were just day dreaming.
I guess I have kitty energy cause I like to sit around and do nothing for hours but I also get the zoomies and frantically paint. Kitty Energy, that is why the cats at my house are drawn to me.
This ‘more time’ from less phone usage has in turn become painting time. I redid basically the entirety of what I had already done on the big painting I have been working on the past couple months. I had a base layer of what I had already painted down as a ready guide so the following painting was built up much quicker (and better!)
I also created a monoprint from a gelliplate, a gelatin/mineral oil plate that acrylic paint doesn’t stick to, but sits on top of.
It is more of a print than a painting I guess because to make it one uses a brayer roller instead of a paintbrush. When making this print I used stencils to mask off the different parts and then let each layer dry and subsequently added layers on top of eachother. Finally I completely rolled over the plate with one last layer of green paint and then placed hot press watercolor paper (smooth [vs. toothy] watercolor paper) on the wet paint, on top of the dried paint layers, with books on top of it all. All the layers peeled off the gelliplate onto the print. It didn’t turn out great but it is the first I’ve tried using a gelliplate. It was a lot of waiting for paint to dry and cleaning the brayer roller. I think this first print was like SpongeBob episodes, that being they are more rough in the first season than in later seasons though they still had concrete ideas.
I also made this abstract painting.
Serendipitously, this week, someone I knew asked if I name my paintings (him not knowing I had just painted a couple of new ones.) I told him that I didn’t but that I thought it was a good idea; so I am deciding to name these paintings. The abstract black one is called “Spirits Roaming” and the colorful shapes monoprint is called “Happy Shapes 1” I also made a third painting, a watercolor line and wash. This one is called “Rare Subway”
I am excited to have this newfound free time and to get some more works done! I hope you all are excited to see what I am making.
Bye
P.s.
Happy National Peanut Day
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